I am in San Francisco for the holiday, and are cooking a little bit, are trying to find a new way to make those Swedish Christmas specialities without using food containing gluten or dairy products, which means that it there are some experimentnivå involved, and the end result might not be what I aimed for, but very edible anyway, though it turned out very different 🙂
I was trying to make the Swedish speciality “lussekatter”, originally a kind of wheatbun, with saffron – to make it with glutenfree flour is not easy… It tasted a little bit similar, but it became more of a bread instead of the “buns” it is supposed to be..
And I found a new substitute for milk – in Sweden we only have those very small boxes of coconut milk, but I found larger coconut-milk containers both in Scottsdale and in San Francisco, which makes cooking a little bit easier, if you want to use coconut-milk in your cooking – I made another Swedish speciality (gotländsk saffranspannkaka), a kind of ricepudding with saffron, where I needed to use a lot of milk…

So, my visit in Scottsdale came to an end, as for now… I can really recommend those intensive sessions, getting two sessions everyday for 5 days feels very special and relaxing! Last time I was in Scottsdale, in July last year, I was getting treatments from Terry Matthews, Karen Moore and Pat (she is 95 now, an amazing women who still gives treatments)
This time I was getting treatments from Terry and Ian Harris, very nice!

But if you want to get this kind of treatments, there are many practitioners around the world that can do that, it’s not only at the institute in Scottsdale you can get it, it’s just to find a practitioner that could give you the time to do it. It’s nice to give yourself that kind of gift now and then 🙂

I was getting my last Jin Shin Jyutsu treatment yesterday, can’t believe that it”s already the end of the week… Staying in Scottsdale for the weekend, but then I am going to San Francisco, to somewhat cooler weather..
If you have a chance to come to the Jin Shin Jyutsu institute in Scottsdale, I really recommend it!

I am in Scottsdale right now, getting two great JSJ treatments every day, for five days, this time I am getting treatments from Terry Matthews and Ian Harris, I highly recommend doing this a little bit now and then – and you don’t have to go to Scottsdale to get two treatments every day, there are many practitioners all around the world that could do that too!

And Ian happened to have a JSJ studygroup Tuesday evening, which meant that I could join that group too, a nice evening activity!

Sadaki Kato, is the son of the late Haruki Kato, who like Mary Burmeister, studied Jin Shin Jyutsu with Master Jiro Murai. Sadaki began apprenticing with his father after finishing studies in the Dept of Economics at Nihon University and attended the Japan School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Physiotherapy from 1994-1996. As a result he is trained in both Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Jin Shin Jyutsu.

In 2013 he joined the Jin Shin Jyutsu faculty and research team. We are delighted that he will be teaching this seminar in Los Angeles! This is a special seminar because it will be based on his father’s text books, “Jin Shin Jyutsu – Master Jiro Murai” by Haruki Kato. Those of you who were unable to study with his father and have the requisite number of classes, will now have a great opportunity to study this material. If you are new to this course, or only studied with Haruki Kato previously, then the books are included in the cost of the course.

I was at the Jin Shin Jyutsu institute in July last year, to get some treatments, and now it’s time again, I arrived to Scottsdale yesterday, starting the treatments tomorrow, am looking forward to that!
I am staying closeby at the hotel at North Pima Road, which is really nice. And they have of course a lot of Christmas decorations – this is what a Christmas tree can look like here in Arizona 🙂

I’m traveling to the US in just a few days, I saw that they have restaurants in both Palo Alto and New York, not very far from where I’m going to be, I might be able to try the food, we’ll see if I will get the time and opportunity…

Fast food, a term that the vast majority of us are far too familiar with. For some, the words trigger thoughts of delicious favourites such as McDonald’s french fries, Burger King burgers or Taco Bell tacos. For others, the words trigger disgust, guilt and a handful of other feelings that can often come along with a regular indulgence in this form of food that we’ve become far too dependent upon. The dependency in large part can be attributed to two main factors: cost and efficiency.

A ‘Cost’ly Example

Flashback over 5 years ago and I was on a road trip with a couple of friends going across the north eastern part of the United States. It was late one night and we were all incredibly hungry. All being on a budget we chose to eat at a Wendy’s drive-thru, and were astonished by what we found: dozens upon dozens of options all available for $1 each. In Canada, at the time, dollar menus did also exist but they were not nearly as extensive or enticing. That night we were able to purchase more food than we could ever consume in one sitting for well under $15. Compare that to a delicious and nutritious ‘Powerhouse Bowl’ featuring avocado, chick peas, sunflower sprouts and a bevy of other healthy toppings on a bed of brown rice at Fresh in Downtown Toronto and you’ve effectively fed 3 unhealthily for less than the price of 1 healthily. This in and of itself shows why so many of us, when on a budget -which seems to be the case for most of us -regularly opt to eat at fast food restaurants.

It’s A Matter Of Time

We live in a world where time has become the most precious and valuable resource. It therefore comes as no surprise that so many of us regularly opt to get what is available within minutes rather than taking the time to make something more nutritious. McDonald’s alone serves 52,000,000 every single day, that is 1 in every 6 Americans.(2) Assuming you are not at a point to make a drastic lifestyle change that granted you more time to make and eat more nutritiously, would you be interested in a “fast food” experience that didn’t take such a toll on your health?

A Fast Food Revolution?

The restaurant is called Lyfe Kitchen, and has been around for three years with 10 locations in popular US Cities such as Culver City, West Hollywood and Chicago amongst others. The health conscious fast food alternative centres itself around concepts such as supporting local farmers, healthy options and affordability.

Unwanted, but often overused additives, such as butter, trans fat, white sugar and high fructose corn syrup are all barred from the menu, which ranges in check size between $4 and $14 on average.(1)

Lyfe Kitchen was founded by two former McDonald’s executives, a fact that may raise some eyebrows. The first is Mike Roberts, former Global President and CO of McDonald’s from 2004 to 2006.(3) The second is Mike Donahue, former chief of corporate communications for McDonald’s USA.(1)

Average serving time at Lyfe Kitchen is 10 minutes or less, with the option to either dine in or take-out, putting it still comfortably under the fast food bracket.

Your Thoughts

In my opinion, the concept behind Lyfe Kitchen certainly seems like an undeniable step in the right direction. It takes into account our lifestyle needs while making a conscious effort to incorporate some of the food-related values most of us do have the intention of incorporating into our lives more regularly.

What are your thoughts on Lyfe Kitchen? Have any of you located in one of the 10 cities where locations already exist ever eaten there?

Whether Lyfe Kitchen is a viable alternative or not, let’s be sure to use it as a reminder of the importance of eating well. Our lives may be overwhelming at times but we all do have the power to incorporate any lifestyle we choose with a conscious effort. The more we step out of the comfort zone of what is easy or what we are used to, the more practical alternatives become. In the end, places such as Lyfe Kitchen only exist because we as a collective have already started to make a shift towards looking for healthier options.

As humans, we are naturally trying to push our limits and learn what is good and bad for our bodies, our lives, and our minds. This 50-year-old man decided to consume ten cans of Coca-Cola a day for an entire month.

He did this to illustrate the potential damages that sugar consumption has on our bodies. “I did an experiment to get people thinking and talking about how much sugar they eat and how unhealthy it is. People need to be aware of the real and powerful damaging effects of sugar on their health.” The results as expected were disastrous; he saw his blood pressure rise, uncontrollable sugar cravings, weight gain, and so much more.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization advised people to halve the amount of sugar that they consume daily, after Britain’s chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies said a sugar tax may be needed to curb obesity rates. Last month it was reported that many fruit juices and smoothies marketed at children contain more sugar than Coca-Cola, and this problem will probably only get worse.

People every day drink large quantities of soda’s and eat a huge amount of junk food and many people act like it is a surprise that out nation as a whole is getting bigger and bigger. Do yourself a favor and today skip the soda and reach for a water, you will thank yourself for it!

To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way.

The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against “luxury foods” like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips.

So if they’re not made of potatoes, what are they exactly?

The process begins with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape.

This dough-like substance is then rolled out into an ultra-thin sheet cut into chip-cookies by a machine.

The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they’re pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another.

Those molds move through boiling oil and then they’re blown dry, sprayed with powdered flavors, and at last, flipped onto a slower-moving conveyor belt in a way that allows them to stack. From then on, the go into the cans, and off towards the innocent mouths of the consumers.

One of the most hazardous ingredients in potato chips is not intentionally added, but rather is a byproduct of the processing.

Acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, whether baked, fried, roasted or toasted.

Potato chips are notoriously high in this dangerous chemical. So high, in fact, that in 2005 the state of California actually sued potato chip makers for failing to warn California consumers about the health risks of acrylamide in their products. A settlement was reached in 2008 when Frito-Lay and several other potato chip makers agreed to reduce the acrylamide levels in their chips to 275 parts per billion (ppb) by 2011, which is low enough to avoid needing a cancer warning label.

The 2005 report “How Potato Chips Stack Up: Levels of Cancer-Causing Acrylamide in Popular Brands of Potato Chips,” issued by the California-based Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), spelled out the dangers of this popular snack. Their analysis found that all potato chip products tested exceeded the legal limit of acrylamide by a minimum of 39 times, and as much as 910 times! Some of the worst offenders at that time included:

If you think you can avoid the health risks of potato chips by choosing baked varieties, which are typically advertised as being “healthier,” think again. Remember that acrylamide is formed not only when foods are fried or broiled, but also when they are baked. And according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on acrylamide levels in foods, baked chips may contain more than three times the level of acrylamide as regular chips!

Interestingly, the same trend holds true for other foods, too, which suggests that baking processed potatoes at high temperature may be one of the worst ways to cook them. For instance, according to the FDA’s data, Ore Ida Golden Fries contained 107 ppb of acrylamide in the regular fried version and 1,098 when baked. So remember, ALL potato chips contain acrylamide, regardless of whether they are natural or not; baked or fried. Likewise, they will ALL influence your insulin levels in a very negative way.

Acrylamide is Not the Only Danger

Acrylamide is not the only dangerous genotoxic compound formed when food is heated to high temperatures.

A three-year long EU project, known as Heat-Generated Food Toxicants (HEATOX), whose findings were published at the end of 2007, found there are more than 800 heat-induced compounds, of which 52 are potential carcinogens. In addition to their finding that acrylamide does pose a public health threat, the HEATOX scientists also discovered that you’re far less likely to ingest dangerous levels of the toxin when you eat home-cooked foods compared to industrially or restaurant-prepared foods.

Additionally, the HEATOX findings also suggest that although there are ways to decrease exposure to acrylamide, it cannot be eliminated completely.

According to their calculations, successful application of all presently known methods would reduce the acrylamide intake by 40 percent at the most—which makes me wonder whether chip manufacturers have really succeeded at this point in reducing acrylamide levels to within legal limits… There’s no updated data as of yet, so there’s no telling whether they’ve been able to comply with the 2005 settlement.

The Search for a “Healthy” Chip Continues

Chip manufacturers keep searching for methods to improve the image of their health-harming but profitable snacks. For example, by the end of 2011, about half of Pepsi’s Frito-Lay brand snacks will be reformulated with all-natural ingredients. The switch is part of PepsiCo’s master plan to tap into the healthy foods market share. The Wall Street Journal recently reported the company hopes to boost their nutrition business from $10 billion to $30 billion by 2020.

The company will remove dietary hazards like monosodium glutamate (MSG), replacing it with natural seasonings, such as molasses and paprika. Artificial colors will be replaced with beet juice, purple cabbage and carrots. All in all, about different 60 snacks are scheduled to get an all-natural makeover.

This is certainly a good example of how consumer demand can alter the direction of food manufacturers in a positive way.

The reformulated chips may end up being less bad for you than the original formulations. However, chips will never be truly healthful. All-natural chips may be the lesser of two evils, but if consumed regularly, they will still push your health in the wrong direction… There’s no getting away from the fact that modern plagues such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes have a dietary component, and potato chips and French fries will always be a losing bet if you want to avoid becoming another disease statistic.

How to Avoid Heat-Induced Toxins in Your Diet

Ideally, you should consume foods that are raw or minimally processed to avoid these types of toxic byproducts—the more raw food, the better. My nutrition plan emphasizes the need for at least one-third of your foods to be consumed raw. Personally, I consume about 80 percent of my food raw, and I find it is one of the most important factors that help keep me healthy.

It may take you awhile to switch over to a less processed diet, but throwing out the most obvious culprits would be a great start.

These would include: French fries and potato chips, all sodas (both regular and diet, as artificial sweeteners may be more problematic than fructose), and doughnuts.

Healthy Eating Made Easy

Aside from creating potentially toxic byproducts, cooking and processing also depletes the food of valuable micronutrients, which is another reason for eating as much raw food as possible. This includes protein sources such as eggs. Raw whole eggs from organic, pastured chickens are an incredible source of high-quality nutrients that many are deficient in. Raw milk is another good example of a food that is beneficial in its raw state but becomes harmful after it is pasteurized.

Remember, eating fresh whole foods is the “secret” to getting healthier, losing weight and really enjoying your food. It’s unfortunate that so many are under the mistaken belief that it’s “next to impossible” to create a meal without processed foods.

You have our permission to reprint this article via creative commons license if you attribute us with a live backlink to this article. – Organic Health